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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 23, 2019

Kyle Lowry

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Postgame 5, Canada

Raptors - 105, Bucks - 99.

Q. Kyle, you waited on the court to talk to Freddie after that performance. What do you say to him?
KYLE LOWRY: Way to play. It's one thing where people talk a lot and they say this or that, but to come out with a performance like that on the road, it shows the mental toughness. It shows just how much of a professional he is. It was an unbelievable performance by him, and he made some big shots for us. You know, he did his job tonight.

Q. How would you describe kind of the balance you guys got from offensively particularly in the first three quarters and just your ability to defend against Giannis and the Bucks in the half court, those two elements of that win?
KYLE LOWRY: I think we just -- offensively it was just taking the right shots, it's taking the shots that are there, that are available, and we're still passing up some looks, I think. We shot 36 percent. We got some good looks. We were aggressive, got to the free throw line, and that's a key to our success tonight.

You know, with Giannis, it's just trying to keep bodies in front of him. You can't stop him. I mean, he's unbelievable. He's most likely MVP of the league, All-NBA, All-Defense -- he's unbelievable. But as a basketball team, you have to throw bodies at him and try to just keep multiple hands, forearms, six eyes, just try to keep individuals in front of him.

Q. Kyle, you guys fell behind early. What wasn't going right early and what changed midway through the first quarter?
KYLE LOWRY: We weren't aggressive, I think. I think we turned the ball over a little bit. I think they made some shots and they were getting out in transition. Bledsoe really was pushing the tempo tonight and looking for himself and he got going a little bit. But one thing about it, we've been saying it the whole time, just no highs, no lows, just staying the course, and that's what we did tonight, just stayed the course.

Q. Kind of along those lines, you guys had a lot of changes happen before the season. Here you guys are now sitting here one win away from the NBA Finals. What does that feel like to you? Does it feel no different than Game 2, Game 3?
KYLE LOWRY: I mean, we've just got to go out there and protect home court. That's what the goal is. Watch some film tomorrow, continue to get better, learn. Nothing is going to be given to us. We've got to go out there and play extremely hard. So that's what that feels like.

Q. Early on it looked like Kawhi was trying to get other people involved. He wound up with nine assists, which is more than he's ever had in any game in his career, but at the end, he was a bulldozer and he was taking it over. Can you talk about the evolution of the game from Kawhi's perspective?
KYLE LOWRY: I think they were throwing bodies at him early. They were sending two or three bodies at him and kind of tilting the floor and making sure guys were loaded on him. He was making the right passes, and we made some shots for him tonight. And then third quarter, he just -- he's been doing it all Playoffs. He went into iso and get to your spot, and it was pretty impressive. The game he played tonight, 35, 9 and 7 was a pretty good game. It's a pretty good game on the big stage and on the road. Superstar. Superstar.

Q. Every time Giannis has the ball and is driving, it's like you guys collapse three dudes on him, and yet they weren't getting an enormous amount of open threes. What is it about your defense that is, despite putting so many bodies on Giannis, still able to limit the open shots?
KYLE LOWRY: Communication, trying to get out, understanding rotations, understanding where the next pass is, and just playing hard. You know, sometimes it just takes an extra effort to get out there. It takes an extra three steps or extra jump or this or that to just play hard, and I think that's the message that we've been preaching the last couple games is just play hard and just keep going and play extremely hard. You know, it's not going to be perfect. It's never going to be perfect. But if it's not perfect, you pick up your teammate, dive for a loose ball, contest a shot, box out, and just play hard.

Q. You guys were down 0-2 in the series. To win three in a row like this in five days, that just doesn't happen every day. What was the turnaround? Can you explain what went into that, because last Friday you left this place and you were down 0-2 and things looked bleak.
KYLE LOWRY: Just staying the course. We never put our heads down. We never thought it would be easy. We still don't think it's going to be easy. They protected their home court, and we went home and protected our home court, and then came back here and got a win tonight.

We understood, like listen, this is the Eastern Conference Finals. It's never going to be easy. It's going to be tough. And you've got a team down there that's really, really talented, really, really good. But we just go out there and play our game. You've got an opportunity to make adjustments on the fly, one day to kind of adjust, to prepare, to recover, and it's been crazy grueling, but it's been a fun process. It's been a fun process.

Q. You're a connoisseur of refereeing.
KYLE LOWRY: Of course.

Q. What was going through your mind, you had two replay reviews in the final 40 seconds, both went your way. Maybe walk me through that a little bit, what it's like to be on the floor when things are so pivotal.
KYLE LOWRY: Matt Devlin and Jack Armstrong, they always look out, so they tell us before what's going on and so the one possession, Matt was like off of Brogdon he said it was our ball. So yeah, that was my referee connoisseuring. Thank you, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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